FE Modeling of Living Human Brain Using Multifrequency Magnetic Resonance Elastography

Viscoelasticity is an inherent property of the soft biological tissue and is increasingly used as a diagnostic parameter, e.g. in characterizing Brain disease, liver fibrosis and breast tumors or tissue-mimicking phantoms preparation. MR elastography (MRE) enables the noninvasive determination of the viscoelastic behavior of human internal organs. In this study, multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography was used to investigate and validate the numerical simulation of human brain viscoelasticity generated by ABAQUS. The dynamic behavior of storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G") obtained by MRE at different frequency ranges were used to generate viscoelastic FE model of brain tissue. Then, shear modulus (µ) and shear viscosity (η) were compared to experimental data. MRE validate the finite element as an effective technique for measurement of rheological material properties. Results indicate the capability of FEM to simulation and comparison of experimental results.